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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23297059">Balter</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity'>quantumoddity</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Unusual Words Prompts [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Critical Role (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Era, M/M, Secret Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:55:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>902</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23297059</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>balter: (v.) to dance gracelessly, but with enjoyment</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Mollymauk Tealeaf/Caleb Widogast</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Unusual Words Prompts [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1687018</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>82</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Balter</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Caleb was starting to enjoy crowds. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Normally he would have avoided them like the plague, the thought of having to share elbow space or even, gods forbid, a few pleasantries with strangers shudder inducing to him. They always made him feel so observed, stared at, like everyone else knew he had no place being there amongst them, like everyone else knew their lines and he didn’t. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he’d seen that Hupperdook seemed to be exclusively composed of crowds, at least at night, Caleb’s heart had sunk to the bottom of his boots. But that was before the paper flowers and the new smells and tastes, before the dark sky had been split with sudden colour and light. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>What a difference a few hours had made. What a difference the</span>
  <em>
    <span> Nein</span>
  </em>
  <span> had made.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now Caleb could see that no one had lines, no one knew where they were going, so it didn’t matter whether he fit or not. He’d never been to a party- not one he could remember, at any rate- but now he was at one, he was surprising himself with how much he was enjoying it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their little group was fracturing and reforming randomly as they moved through the packed street, different eyes being caught by different things. Caleb felt his usual itches to anxiously count everyone he knew should be around him and desperately try and track them but he took a deep breath instead. It was fine. They’d all be fine. He didn’t have to worry about rules tonight. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He saw Nott and Jester surge towards a display of glass jewellery and made a mental note to return anything that stuck to Nott’s fingers. Yasha had found a flower seller that seemed to specialise in silk lilies. Beau had bought a portion of some kind of potato cakes that, even from here, smelled strongly of fiery, stinging peppers and was running towards Fjord with a challenge in her eyes. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Molly seemed to see none of it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was standing in the dead centre of the street, attention not even flickering no matter who walked past him, no matter how many curious looks he was drawing for a variety of reasons. All he seemed to see was the fireworks that kept clattering and crackling overhead, their sources unseen, like they were just being conjured from thin air. There was an almost rapturous look on his face, a look of the most devoted kind of prayer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Caleb’s eyes scanned the crowd again, this time to make sure everyone was occupied. Beau was cackling through streaming eyes while Fjord doubled over and tried not to spit up his mouthful, Yasha was stroking the petals of a lily with a faraway look in her eyes, Jester was hanging several necklaces at once off Nott’s ears and loudly exclaiming how beautiful she looked. No one was looking their way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Caleb closed the distance between him and Molly in a few strides. And he took his hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Molly didn’t jump or startle, just the slightest widening of his eyes and a turn of his head to see Caleb standing there. Before, it had always been him who’d taken any risk, who’d put his foot out first to take a new step. Seeing Caleb do it was new, especially something out in the open, something that would be very hard to explain away if one of their friends saw. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Caleb didn’t say anything, he just smiled. He’d never be heard over the music anyway and he wasn’t even sure he could find the words for what he was feeling. It was just nice to hold Mollymauk’s hand and see him so happy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Molly smiled too, his fingers moving to thread with Caleb’s and squeeze tight before drawing him close, angling his body and making his intention clear. Caleb had a moment’s hesitation, a moment’s panic, before he looked and saw everyone had moved on, further into the crowd ahead, not even noticing that they were two members short. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was dark and loud and everyone’s attention was somewhere else, who would see? Who would know?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And even if they did…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Caleb turned his body to match Mollymauk’s. They’d spoken about dancing earlier, joked about it, given him looks of disbelief when he’d insisted he knew how to waltz. Knowing and being good at something were two very different things, granted, but still.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The song playing wasn’t a waltz by any means, it was a taproom ballad meant to be embellished with new, even filthier lyrics every time it was sung through, being enthusiastically poured out into the street from a nearby tavern. But it was a very Molly song and Caleb could get excited about that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was immediately graceless and stumbling, difficult with the crowds around them and their mismatched styles. But they were both grinning, finding a way to move with each other, making it work for them. Whenever one of them stumbled or misstepped, the other would hold them up. Whenever they missed a beat, Molly would just spin Caleb instead, until he was laughing dizzily. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the song ended, Caleb quickly rose onto his toes and kissed Molly, just quickly, on the lips. They rarely kissed, even on their nights together, but in that moment, Caleb just found himself gripped by the wild desire to have their lips together. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>After all, he didn’t have to worry about the rules tonight.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please consider leaving a comment!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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